One of the important things that Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s Prayer is that we should pray as members of his body. That does not mean that we may never pray as individuals. Many psalms are individual prayers.
LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, “There is no help for him in God.” Psalm 3:1,2 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. Psalm 4:1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation. Psalm 5:1
But what it does mean is that we also need to pray as belonging to the community of the people of God, and that, even when we pray as individuals, we should, with certain petitions and at certain times, pray as part of the body of Christ and for ourselves with that body.
In Matthew 6, when the Lord gave this prayer to his disciples, he told them to pray in secret, and while praying in secret, to use these words: Our Father… Give us… Forgive us… Lead us… Even in our individual prayers we remember the church of God throughout the world. We sometimes have individual needs and individual thanksgivings to bring, but often also, even in private, we join our voices to the unheard voices of the people of God throughout the world, and pray with them, Our Father, hallowed be thy name… The petitions of the Lord’s prayer are both universal and individual. I want these things and ask them as sincerely desiring them for myself. But also all the people of God want them, and are praying with me, even if they are not in the same place with me. And I want them for them as well as for myself, just as they want them for me as well as for themselves.
In its discussion of the petitions of the Lord’s prayer the Heidelberg Catechism preserves this universal aspect. It always interprets the petitions as applying not just to me, but to all the people of God. Thus, in its interpretation of the first petition it teaches us that the petition means grant us, first, rightly to know You…
That interpretation also turns the first petition into a prayer for ourselves. The petition focuses on God (Hallowed be thy name), but the interpretation focuses on us: grant us… That doesn’t mean that the catechism is wrong. It isn’t. But what it does mean is that the catechism doesn’t by any means exhaust the meaning of the petition. The petition is not only for ourselves as the people of God, but also for all men. Included in it is the request, let all men hallow thy name. In fact, it includes also angels and all creatures: Praise him, all his angels… Praise him, all you stars of light (Psalm 148). And it is, as well, a prayer that he will hallow his own name. We ask him to work in his creation, by his providence, to the hallowing of his name: Father, glorify your name (John 12:28).
We pray that he will sanctify his own name
The truth that lies at the root of this petition is this, the Lord our God is holy.
Psalm 99 talks about the majesty of God as he reveals himself in his works, especially his works in and for Zion. The Lord reigns. He dwells between the cherubim. He is great in Zion, and high above all the peoples. He loves justice, has established equity, and has executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. He answered Moses, Aaron and Samuel among his priests and those who called on his name. He forgave sins and took vengeance on their deeds.
It also talks about the proper response to this glorious revelation. Let the peoples tremble. Let the earth be moved. Let them praise your great and awesome (fearful) name. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool. Again in verse 9, Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill. This is what we ask in the first petition.
But notice that what stands out in this great revelation, what causes trembling, and what is worthy of praise, is his holiness. The psalm has a chorus. He is holy (v. 3). He is holy (v. 5). For the Lord our God is holy (v. 9). In the Hebrew that word holy receives the emphasis by being first in the sentence. Holy is he. Holy is he. Holy is the Lord our God.
In Numbers 20 we find that this holy Lord God defends the honor and holiness of his name. Moses transgressed by striking the rock.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?”Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.
We might say that his transgression was not so great, and that he was provoked by the wickedness of the people. But God did not take it lightly.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
The Scriptures conclude the story in this way:
This was the water of Meribah,because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and He was hallowed among them.
It was not by Moses and Aaron. Therefore it was by the judgment of the Lord against them. To hallow his own name he did not allow Moses and Aaron to enter the land. This was a very severe blow to Moses, but the Lord did not relent.
When we pray Hallowed be thy name we are asking that God always act for the sanctifying of his name, even when it means that he must judge us for our failures in doing so. He and his holiness are most important to us, and therefore we make it the first of our petitions to him.
It was also the chief concern of our Lord Jesus Christ. In John 12:27,28 we find him praying. That was not rare, but this time we find him praying aloud, and that was. Mostly his prayers were private, and the Scriptures do not record them. But here we have an exception:
Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.Father, glorify Your name.
Even the trouble of his approaching death could not distract him from that fundamental rule of his prayers: My Father must glorify his own name.
That is the first thing that we pray here: Father, glorify thy name. Whatever it takes, whatever it means for me, I want you to work in all things for your own glory.
We pray that we will sanctify his name
The Heidelberg Catechism (Lord’s Day 47) teaches us that we are asking for three things: 1) grant us rightly to know you, 2) and to sanctify, magnify and praise you in all your works, and 3) that we so order our whole life … that your name… may be honored and praised on our account.
To know God rightly is to know him as he has revealed himself in his word. It is to understand what he says about himself directly in his word, as well as what he shows about himself in his works as recorded there. It is to understand not only that he is creator, but also that the account of creation demonstrates that he is the only and the almighty God. It is to know him from the bounties of his providence, sung in Psalm 104, as the God who is good to all, whose tender mercies are over all his works. By his judgments proclaimed against the nations and his own people in the prophets we know him as righteous. By the works of our Lord Jesus Christ recorded in the gospels we know him as the God of all grace. By the ongoing fulfillment of his promises prophesied in Revelation and other places, we know him as the faithful one. In this petition, therefore, we are asking God to open our understanding so that we may receive all his revelation, and thus know him as he is.
That is eternal life.
That knowledge is necessary to our hallowing of his name. The more we know, the more humbly and obediently we receive his revelation, the more he will be sanctified in us. The more knowledge we have, the more glory he will receive.
The second thing we ask is that we sanctify, magnify and praise him in all his works. This is our response to the knowledge we receive through his creation and Word.
We also pray that we may so order our whole life that his name may be honored and praised on our account.
We pray for three things in that, and first we pray for holiness.
We are not asking that we may be able to sanctify him in the same sense that he sanctifies us. He is absolutely, eternally and unchangeably holy, and cannot become more so. We can only acknowledge that holiness and praise him for it.
But there is in that prayer an acknowledgement that his name is not sanctified as it ought to be. We fall short of the purpose of our lives. According tothe Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 6 that purpose is
that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness, to praise and glorify Him.
We do not know him. We do not love him. We do not live with him in blessedness. We do not praise and glorify him. We are therefore praying that he will restore us and sanctify us so that we may again fulfill that purpose. When he sanctifies us he purges our impurities, and makes us more like himself. And when he does that then we sanctify him even more. There is here a virtuous circle. He is always first, so he sanctifies us. As we are sanctified, we sanctify him, and the more we sanctify him the more his grace works to sanctify us.
That prayer for sanctification also involves praying for judgment. We ask that he will examine us, test us, and purify us. We want him to remove all the dross of sin so that we may stop our daily dishonoring of his name. That requires testing and refining. Peter says, You have been grieved by fiery trials, that the genuineness of your faith… may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1:6-7).
Finally, it involves praying for forgiveness. We need forgiveness as the foundation of all his other blessings, also of the blessing of sanctification, and we need it as the ground on which alone we can draw near to this holy God.
We pray that all creatures will sanctify his name
We also desire that all creatures acknowledge and praise his holy name.
We pray in Psalm 67:
Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, And govern the nations on earth. Selah Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.
We call on the angels to praise him.
Bless the LORD, you His angels, Who excel in strength, who do His word, Heeding the voice of His word. Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, You ministers of His, who do His pleasure. Psalm 103:20,21
We want all creatures to praise him:
He sends out His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes; He casts out His hail like morsels; Who can stand before His cold? He sends out His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow. Psalm 147:15-18
Psalm 148 sums it all up.
Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! ... Praise the LORD from the earth, You great sea creatures and all the depths; Fire and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind, fulfilling His word… (vv,1-2, 7-8)
Our prayer is that he will use us also to fulfill that purpose. We ask him that through our witness, through our godly living, through the proclamation of his praise, men may see and know that he is the great God, and that his name must be sanctified.
And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and will rebuild those places as at the first.I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me. Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.’ Jer 33:7-9.
You do not put your trust in princes, or in the strength or wisdom of men. You pray to a great God for great things. He is able to perform them, and will when we trust in him. Therefore, pray always “Hallowed be your name.”